


a dance not of two but three

by WhirlyBird70



Category: One Piece
Genre: Cameos, F/M, M/M, Multi, Polyamory, goddamn is this the first work for this ship? damn., like saying it until the end, they love each other very much your honnor hina just doesn't
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-02-13
Updated: 2021-02-13
Packaged: 2021-03-12 22:01:46
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 11,577
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29391663
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/WhirlyBird70/pseuds/WhirlyBird70
Summary: Hina’s smiles are small, hidden treasures, hidden behind a cigarette or a hand, or given in battle when no one dares tread close enough to see her face. They are rarely this joyful, and Fullbody and Jango haven’t gotten Hina to laugh before. She looks bright now.Beautiful.Her laughter is swept away as the winds pick up again, but she tucks the flower into her front pocket and well –In the quiet of the barracks that night, Jango and Fullbody share their own smile, and plot to give more roses to their captain.--Or: Hina, Jango, and Fullbody fall in love. It goes pretty well, all things considered.For Timmie, for the 2021 Sake Exchange!! I hope you enjoy!
Relationships: Django/Hina (One Piece), Django/Tekken no Fullbody | Ironfist Fullbody, Fullbody/Hina, Fullbody/Hina/Django
Comments: 6
Kudos: 16





	a dance not of two but three

**Author's Note:**

  * For [themysteriousinternetentity](https://archiveofourown.org/users/themysteriousinternetentity/gifts).



**I.**

He meets Jango on a day where the sun shines warm and the dance floor beats beneath his feet. Fullbody is smiling that day, bright despite his continued faults with women and pirates, and despite winning second place to a _stranger,_ because, well - Jango enters conversation just as he dances, jerky and dazzling all at once, and it’s hard not to be enamored.

To meet the man of his dreams, his _heart,_ in a dance that they step into? Feet moving in sync, arms outstretched and fingers just brushing each other as they twirled along the dance floor? It is like magic.

(But the world has always been a wondrous place.)

_“_ Fullbody _”,_ Fullbody introduces himself after the dance, when they find themselves in this stilted, wondrous conversation, “Lieutenant _.”_

_“_ Fitting _”,_ Jango says, and doesn’t introduce himself at all, but Fullbody will know his name later, _“_ _I used to serve under somebody as well. Do you like it?”_

Fullbody laughs as they order their food, hair swaying in front of his eyes. “It’s a nice life. I don’t mind. Gives me time to joy the simpler things in life, aye?” He teases, gaze switching between the stage and Jango’s eyes.

_“_ Aye _,”_ Jango says, the simpler things, and both of them share a smile.

The simpler life turns complicated after that, as pirates’ cross swords with marines and this stranger, who can match Fullbody beat for beat, sailing away as Fullbody fights with his last breath.

Then – the stranger becomes _Jango,_ becomes the man known as the Double-Crosser, becomes the man who saves Fullbody and fights with just as they danced.

It's _exhilarating_.

It’s their first meeting, undisguised by guises of civilian dancers. It’s their first meeting as _themselves._

It ends in handcuffs and then in freedom and demotion, but Fullbody finds he would have it any other way.

**II.**

Jango is a professional at not caring. He slips backward, out of step, erasing and forgetting all the moments where he _clicked_ with people. To everyone, he is always too odd, too weird, too jangling and uncertain.

With Fullbody, he isn’t like that, and that is why he must raise his swinging pendulum to put a stop to it all.

(The pendulum – perfectly swinging, always in motion, never stopping. Jango loves the device. Its nearly his polar opposite.)

Fullbody doesn’t want it. Fullbody was _demoted_ for him. Fullbody is –

A fool, like him, Jango thinks as a woman dressed in rose and pink swings by, her voice full of laughter at their antics.

She’s bright and beautiful, and Jango knows to be wary. _Black Cage Hina,_ the one marine in the East no one wants to cross. With her, there is no escape.

Jango’s heart is trapped. She’s so much _more_ than she is in news paper’s with tyrants held in Black Cages.

He shares a look with Fullbody, and _how_ could he have ever thought of leaving him? Of stepping out of this synchronized dance?

Black Hina raises a hand, gesturing for them to follow, and soon Jango finds himself dressed in marine white and following not the government, but _people._

He’ll never make a good marine. He doesn’t quite believe in justice, has been a pirate too long to think of orders and loyalty with the same favorable grace he might have long ago but….

Hina demands loyalty and orders, and Fullbody finds power in them, and Jango finds himself not _balking_ at as he might have. Fullbody is different (a partnered dance instead of a lead.) _Hina_ is different (her name is black cage but Jango has never met someone he makes him feel this free.)

With them, Jango falls into step, falls into line, and learns to be _happy_ – if only for a moment.

**III**.

Hina finds the two fools on a hot summer’s day, when the both of them are too stupid to recognize that friendship does not end over the line between _Marine_ and _Pirate._

She only has to look at Garp and Roger’s history to know this. Only has to look at Garp’s new recruit to know this.

The Marines always try to enforce such strict _rules._ Don’t do this. Do that. Hina knows a cage when she sees one, and that is what the marines are becoming if no one does anything soon.

She can do her small part though.

She walks by them, a sway to her hips and a rare, soft smile to her lips, and that’s enough. Jango turns his head the same time as Fullbody, and –

Well.

She could use a few loyal boys like this on her ship.

She ushers them on, in moments having them dressed like marines instead of squabbling dancers.

She expects it to be the end of it – just another few more loyal fools on the ship, taken in first by her looks and secondly by her command.

(Tsuru taught her that. It’s… difficult, sometimes, being a woman in the marines, but there are ways around it. There _have_ to be – and Hina will use every one to her advantage.)

But they don’t _stop._ Like everyone else, they follow her blindly, but they make an effort to make her laugh with the hijinks, always reaching out a hand to her and ignoring the structures of the marines. It’s …

She can’t quite describe it, isn’t really sure that she _can,_ but she leaves everyday with the shadow of a smile on her lips, and that is perhaps better than anything she could have ever asked for.

**IV.**

Jango has never left the East Blue. He’s never even been close to the Calm Belts nor reverse mountain in all his years at sea.

In the face of the Calm Belt, Sea Kings rising in the distance, he cannot help but tremble.

_This is the start, boys,_ Hina had said to the crew last night, with her hair waving in the gentle lantern light. _The big leagues. No more petty criminals now – your enemies will all have bounties. They will be **dangerous.**_ _If you want to leave, well – the reassignment post is that way._

Jango hadn’t left then. Fullbody’s comforting presence and Hina’s steady lead had kept him from taking a step back, and another. He stayed for _them._

(He’s never stayed before. How _odd._ )

He wonders if he can keep that up. His hand strays to his pocket, for his lovely, lovely pendulum. A few waves, and he was never here, right? Right?

(The problem is, even if everyone else forgets, _Jango_ will never be able to forget.)

A hand grabs his wrist, warm and steady. He turns.

There, looking at the same horizon, is Fullbody.

(His hair is pink. Jango has always loved pink. The color of hearts, of beauty, of love – wonderful color. It suits Fullbody. It suits Hina.)

He’s shaking too, but his grip… its steady. He’s scared.

(Who wouldn’t be? Jango has heard the tales. Men who sail off into this narrow sea, never to be seen again, with sea kings and monsters lurking under every wave and surrounding every island. They’re small time East Blue folk. They can’t do this.)

Still, Fullbody glances at him and pulls his hand away from the pendulum that will end it all. “C’mon,” he says, short and simple. “We can do this.”

His smile is small, but there as he tugs Jango towards their station for entry into the Calm Belts. He casts him another small smile as they both turn away from the horizon and too each other, and well –

Jango returns it, quiet and sweet.

He does not need to focus on the horizon. Not when Fullbody is right here, right now.

_“SAILS UP!”_ Hina cries from the quarterdeck, and there is no room for fear.

Jango charges forth, into the Grand Line, and does not allow himself for falter.

(For Fullbody and Hina he stays. For Fullbody and Hina, he charges _forward._ )

**V.**

Hina loves to wander the towns, taking in luxuries and taking the time to spend her well-earned paycheck. She doesn’t do so often, but when she does, she likes to make it _count._

Today she has brought her boys with her, the both of them trailing behind with her purchases and their own in arms. It’s… nice, being out here, no expectations, no uniforms, just pure simplicity. A reprieve from the rigors of Marine life.

Still, they wouldn’t be marines without a _mission._

Jango pulls Fullbody back as Hina talks to a food vendor, a one-armed electric catfish fishman cook.

“We need to get Hina a gift!” He tells his partner, earnest and excited.

Fullbody is onboard immediately. “But what?”

Jango shrugs. “We could look around?”

Hina starts raising her voice, glaring at the fishman who seems _very_ argumentative for someone who looks only sixteen.

“I think we have time,” Fullbody says dryly, and they disappear into the market, Fullbody’s hand slipping into Jango’s.

They wander through the market place, passing all kinds of peculiar people. A small, horned child carrying a giant bazooka, walking hand in hand with what looks to be her dad, a tall tired look man. They give Jango a look as he gawks at the bazooka, but he quickly moves on as he catches sight of _another_ horned woman, this time with a flower crown adorning her hair a much older. A few stands behind is a woman without horns, but a sweeping red coat.

Why are there so many pirates at this port?

Jango doesn’t want to think about it.

Instead, he turns around, looking at stalls for anything Hina might want.

“Psst!” A voice whispers, and Jango turns his head to look at a man standing in the shadows. He’s in a large coat, one that looks like it has _many_ pockets. “You wanna devil fruit, Marine?”

A _devil_ fruit?

That would make a good gift for Hina.

(Not to eat, but rather to keep it out of the hands of filthy pirates.)

Jango snatches Fullbody’s shirt, and drags him to the alleyway.

“Devil fruit?” He prompts the mysterious man, who looks somewhat surprised they came so trusting.

Well, Jango has never quite been _smart._

“Aye!” The man says, happily brandishing a purple fruit. Or part of one at least. “Here is a portion of the Nise-Nise fruit! It’ll shapeshift you into anything you’re not – and see the swirls? That means the devil fruit is still active! It hasn’t been eaten by any pirate yet, so anyone can still gain it’s powers!”

Jango isn’t sure how devil fruits work, but he’s _pretty_ sure that makes sense. And shapeshifting… that’s a dangerous ability.

“How much!” Jango demands, already searching for his wallet.

“Five million belli!”

Funny. That’s how much Jango got for the last bounty he turned in.

“Sold!” Jango tells him, and Fullbody grabs the fruit just as Jango shoves the money at the dealer. “What’s your- “

He’s about to ask the man’s name, but the dealer is gone with the wind, never to be seen again.

“Huh.” Jango and Fullbody say, both at once, but then turn to eye the fruit.

Before they can turn to gift it, however, Hina shows up behind their shoulders like an avenging spirit.

“And what,” she drawls with a drag on her cigarette, “Did you just buy?”

“Captain!” Jango and Fullbody flourish, striking into a pose, hands presenting the fruit. “A gift! A dangerous fruit kept out of the hands of pirates! The Nise-Nise Fruit!”

Hina raises an eyebrow. “The fake-fake fruit?”

Jango gives pause, and Hina says, affectionate in her gaze. She’s much more relaxed out of uniform, when no one is asking her for orders. Jango is glad she let them see this side of her. “Yes?” He says, questionably.

She shakes her, head, plucking the fruit from his hands and taking a bite out of it.

“NO!” Jango and Fullbody both scream, reaching out, fearing her impending death, but nothing happens. Hina stays the same, no exploding, and no grisly demise.

“It’s a fake fruit, boys.” She says, tossing the fruit back. “Or it’s a real one, and somebody already at the other parts. You got conned, boys. Now come one – the red head bounty hunter by the docks said they hand some information to give me.”

She stalks off, waving at them to follow, and Jango and Fullbody stare after her.

“Huh,” Jango says, and vows that Hina is the bravest woman to have ever lived.

“Huh,” Fullbody says, and understands that he will never have the confidence Hina did in eating that fruit.

They trade a look and scurry off after her, hoping that whatever the bounty hunter hand would be a good enough present for Hina.

(ahead of them, unbeknownst to them, Hina smiles at their antics. Boys who would blow an entire paycheck just for her, and not even be mad that she refused the gifts? They were _fools_ but well – they were her fools. 

She wouldn’t have it any other way.)

**VI.**

The day they hear Hina laugh for the first time is nothing short of a hellish, hellish day. They’re in the Grand Line now, tracking after something grander, Fullbody and Jango both comfortable in their ranks and the ways of the marines. Hina there, at the front, leading them forward with a stern lilt to her brow and a cage like loyalty surrounding her crew.

She leads them into the storm that day. Swells rise high, a 100 feet or more, as lightning rains down from above. It’s the only light they get, the flashes in the dark, and the only thing that keeps them steady is Hina barking out orders.

_Raise the Sails! Tie all bodies to deck! And for fuck’s sake, secure that canon!_

It’s hell. Fullbody is vaguely sure he must have died. Jango, out of breath and leaning against the math with him, is definitely sure that he is dead.

The only thing that must have saved them is the rope threaded around both of their waists, connecting them to each other and to the ship, even when Grand Line waves crash over them.

Across from the, Hina leans against the wall of the main cabin, soaked and tired. Her hair is strewn across her face, and her eyes look tired. So very, very tired.

(She’s a devil fruit user at sea, and she is the most powerful member of the crew. There is no one to save her if she falls overboard, even if Jango and Fullbody will try with all their might. She has to stay _strong_ and survive, against all odds, her own cages trapping her to the ship.

She is _strong.)_

That tiredness doesn’t suit her.

The rest of the crew is lazing about on deck, but Fullbody doesn’t care as he nudges Jango into awareness. “Captain?” He asks Hina, quiet.

She looks at them and raises an eyebrow, stern and cigarette flickering in the dark.

Fullbody blinks for a moment, capturing this moment of openness forever, and dives forward. “I, uh. Found this in the storm.”

And he presents to her, crumpled and windswept, a single rose. Hina blinks at it, as if barely recognizing what it could possibly be.

It looks kind of stupid there, hanging in the still air, but Fullbody doesn’t waver.

(Hina would not waver, and Jango would have done it all backwards. He knows them like this, just like how he falls in step with them, follows their lead. Like Hina, he does not waver.)

There’s a beat, a rustling of the wind, and then Hina throws her head back and _laughs._

It is a beautiful, beautiful thing, chortling and snorting and _proud._ She laughs into the wind at this little offering of ~~love~~ loyalty Fullbody is giving to her, and she laughs even more as she plucks it from his hand.

Its – It’s _amazing._

He’s never seen her laugh like this. Beside him, Jango is just as speechless.

Hina’s smiles are small, hidden treasures, hidden behind a cigarette or a hand, or given in battle when no one dares tread close enough to see her face. They are rarely this joyful, and Fullbody and Jango haven’t gotten Hina to _laugh_ before. She looks bright now.

Beautiful.

Her laughter is swept away as the winds pick up again, but she tucks the flower into her front pocket and well –

In the quiet of the barracks that night, Jango and Fullbody share their own smile, and plot to give more roses to their captain. 

**VII.**

“Come on, come on, _Come on!_ ” Somebody is saying, shoving through the crowd. Jango can’t tell who is it, can’t tell _anything,_ but he does see Fullbody’s bright shock of hair before him, and that is what he follows.

A pirate attack – a _pirate_ attack? On this base? It was supposed to be _quiet._ A needed break after the no less than _fourteen_ freak storms on their trip over.

Jango snorts. He knows pirates. Always, always unpredictable.

(They backstab and they smile, and they come in the forms of conniving butlers and boys with straw hats. You can’t quite trust that anybody isn’t a pirate – not all of them like to wave a black flag. Jango never did.

But, perhaps that says the most in the end? _Jango the double-crosser._ Of course he would never be loyal to the flag.)

Hina is shouting orders, getting more distant by the second as Jango and Fullbody charge through the crowds. Her orders are always the same when they encounter pirates with bounties over 100,00,000 bellies: run, hide, let her deal with them for now, and get _help._

(Hina is a good person to follow. She fights, deadly and sure, and makes sure her men survive and civilians _survive_ when she can make it happen. She’s wonderful like that.)

Right now, they’re in the hiding portion of it all.

Fullbody is pointing ahead, and _there –_ an old marine ship, on a small scale, an older model. The crow’s nest looks to be in perfect condition, with tall walls and a discarded rifle lying against the wall. _Perfect._

Gun shots and rage echo around them as they scurry up the rigging, tossing themselves over and immediately looking up to see if anyone spotted them.

No one did.

Fullbody and Jango share twin sighs of relief, and settle back down in the crow’s nest, unable to be seen from the outside.

Perfect, quiet, just the two –

“Um.”

Three of them.

Jango’s eyes flash open, the same time as Fullbody’s, and there, sitting across from them, is a lanky man with wide eyes and dark hair. A crow is on the ground next to him, and he is cocking his head to the side, exactly like the crow.

“Hello?” The man waves, hesitantly.

Jango waves back, truly baffled.

“Are you hiding too?”

Fullbody nods.

“Cool!” The man says, and then widens his eyes. “Oh! You are marines. I should probably go.” And with that, he stands, gives them a sloppy salute, and backflips off of the crow’s nest and onto the deck below. Jango watches with a sort of detachment, and wonders if this is what the Grand Line will always be like, one weird encounter after another.

Fullbody settles in beside Jango, pulling the rifle that they found closer in case any pirate tries to do something. Jango takes his pendulum out and starts swinging the chain between his fingers, carefully threaded in and out.

Explosions echo behind them, Hina’s voice even louder. A body is tossed as far as their crow’s nest, sailing overhead and landing on the deck with a crash. The both of them _wince,_ but relax even further.

Hina is their captain. Their _commander._ Of course, she is winning.

It takes about thirty minutes, maybe forty. In that time Fullbody has to shoot two pirates down, and Jango gets two with his chakram. The battle dies down to weary aftermath, smoke billowing in the air.

When Jango and Fullbody climb down, there is ash, and still standing buildings. A victory, with the victor standing tall in rose in the midst of it all.

_Hina._

She’s scratched and tired, breathing heavily, but still her back is straight as she twists cages around those still left alive.

Instantly, Jango feels a pang of regret at following orders.

(Next to him, Fullbody stiffens too. The both of them are _weak_ \- and maybe they wouldn’t have done much, but they could have _helped.)_

Silently, he vows to do better. Silently, he promises not to let Hina fight alone like this ever again.

But –

Hina turns, smiling softly to the crowds but with her eyes on Jango and Fullbody alone, and says –

“I’m glad you’re alright, men.” And Jango knows _exactly_ why he chose to follow them. It’s a moment of softness, ones that are becoming more common as Hina delves further into the Grand Line, but it’s there before she starts issuing orders. “Now, look for wounded! Triage tent is by bay three! Get to work!”

Jango snaps to attention (so odd, he never used to do that before-) and immediately turns to follow. “Yes ma’am!”

Next time, he won’t hide. He’ll be strong enough that Hina won’t worry about him when he doesn’t. _This_ he vows.

**VIII.**

Another storm – always constant on the Grand Line. This one’s different though.

This time, the warning didn’t come in time.

This time, Hina wasn’t tied to the deck.

And _this_ time, Fullbody watched Hina be taken by the waves in a flash of pink of wind, into the deep, deep waves down below.

For a second, there was fear.

The next, Fullbody was diving overboard in a perfect swan dive, entering the churning ocean waters with a solid _splash!_

It's dark is his first instinct. It’s _cold_ is his second.

His third is that he can’t see Hina, and that sparks more fear than anything else.

The currents push and shove at him as he wakes his way down, down, _down_ into the waters, belatedly realizing the rope about his waist has come undone.

He’s alone down here, surrounding by dark waters and perhaps sea kings.

But Hina’s _paralyzed_ down here. He can’t let that happen. He can’t.

His lungs are burning.

_Hina!_ He thinks, desperately, _Where are you?_

(Hina had smiled at him, pink and rose and smoke. She had smiled and took no bullshit from him, shut down his flirting attempts but still smiled when he offered her roses. She lead them into battle and made sure they were safe even if it meant she had to take the enemies down all on her own, and she never seemed to mind when Fullbody and Jango did their antics instead of working. She was – _wonderful_ , even when she had a hard time smiling or was too heavy handed in her orders. Simply, _wonderful.)_

A flash of pink.

_Hina!_

He kicks harder and harder and harder, lungs burning, chest freezing, limbs like lead, but there’s her face, calm and quiet in the waters.

It’s a moment till he grabs onto her waist, but it’s a moment he can’t spare.

_She’s already drowning!_

He starts kicking up and up and up, water streaming past his face, the flashes of lighting showing just how far he is from the surface. It doesn’t matter, it doesn’t because _Hina –_

He breaks the surface with a heavy breath, and for a moment, can’t find the ship.

_Fuck,_ he thinks, _oh fuck._

He’s dead. _Hina’s_ dead.

A lifesaver hits on the side of the head, and he turns to see Jango waving from the deck of the ship, rope to the preserver in hand. Fullbody grabs on, and lets himself be _hauled_ to safety.

Hina won’t die. She _won’t_.

Jango’s glasses flash in the lightning of the storm as he hauls them up, up and _up_ towards the deck. Fullbody needs to be stronger. He should have been able to leap to the deck.

(But he can’t – not yet. Not _yet._ )

As if carrying a glass statue, Fullbody lowers Hina to the deck, slowly and carefully. She’s not breathing. _She’s not breathing._

Jango is moving before Fullbody can, the CPR they learned from basic training being used immediately. _“C’mon, Captain, c’mon!”_ Fullbody huffs, leaning down to place his ear above her lips.

Devil fruit users.

One weakness.

Fullbody wishes Hina didn’t have it.

Jango is puffing next to him, up and down, up and down, and for a moment, Fullbody thinks this is it.

That Hina is really –

A cough, sudden and violent, Hina lurching to the side to expel all the water she inhaled going down.

-Living.

She’s alive.

_She’s alive!_

Old training takes control, and he starts barking out orders. “FURL THE SAILS! GET A BLANKET! AND GET MORE TETHERS!”

The sailors around him blink for an instant, but in the next they are rushing about, tying up the sails and grabbing ropes so no one else is tossed overboard. A blanket, dark and purple, is tossed at Fullbody and he wastes no time in wrapping in around Hina.

She’s shivering, but aware.

“ _Thank you,”_ She says, softly, gripping the blanket and looking Fullbody directly in the eye. “Thank you.”

Fullbody smiles, gentle and happy, and helps her up with Jango. “No need for thanks, captain! Anything for you.”

She laughs at that as they herd her inside, and it’s the best sound Fullbody could hear after their dip in the ocean.

**IX.**

“So…” Smoker starts, a slight smirk gracing his features, even around his cigar.

Hina raises an eyebrow at him, and pushes her empty glass towards him. “Another round, _then_ you can ask me questions.”

He sighs, but raises a hand to the bartender, with a few belli in hand.

It’s… nice catching up. And making Smoker pay. For all the times she’s bailed him out of trouble, he deserves to pay for a few of her drinks.

First the academy, where he had always disregarded orders, chasing after pirates he _knew_ were too big for him, and letting other small timers go. Then the whole Alabasta issue, where her _elite squadron_ had been used in the chase for a couple of no bounty pirates.

(Wasn’t she regretting that now.)

He was her friend though, and as much as she kicked up a fuss, she didn’t mind. The world needed more marines like him, who knew where to draw the line being loyalty and morality.

(Hina tries, but even she isn’t sure she’d be able to bend and flow like Smoker is able to.)

The now filled glass slide across the table and into Hina’s waiting hand. “Thank you,” She says smoothly, and lifts the glass to take a drink. “Now, what was it you wanted?”

“Heh. So, who are your new subordinates? They don’t exactly seem Grand Line potential.” He gestures vaguely to the two men arguing across the streets. _Fools,_ she thinks affectionately, watching Fullbody and Jango haggle over the price of perfume, presumably for her. _Idiots._ She’s never needed gifts to be happy.

(It doesn’t mean that she isn’t when they offer them to her. She’s never been offered gifts like that, without the expectation of something in return.)

“Neither did Tashigi,” Hina points out, remembering Tashigi’s tears in the Alabastian heat. “But she’s grown.”

“Have they?”

“Yes.” Hina answers, quick and sure. She’s surprised by the speed of it. When did she come to care so much? “They’re stronger now, and they have a drive that they didn’t before. Doesn’t mean they can’t be fools sometimes.”

“Yeah?” Smoker grunts, eyes on her. She knows he’s curious. She’s Hina the Black Cage, head of the Black Cage Corp, an elite capture and destroy squadron. She doesn’t chatter and she doesn’t have time for _distractions_ when people get in her way.

By all accounts, Fullbody and Jango are distractions.

“Did you know that when I sent them to capture _one_ enemy ship, they took so long because they were picking flowers for me?” She tells him, half incredulous.

He raises an eyebrow.  
  
“And on one of our first storms Fullbody – the one with the pink hair – he offered me a _rose._ In the middle of a Grand Line Storm.”

His eyebrow raises high as a plume of smoker drifts out.

“I told you they were fools.”

“You seem fond of them.” Smoker counters, a grin, teasing, and Hina is reminded of the time at the Academy where she had asked Smoker to help her win a date with the only other woman in her squadron. He’s never going to let this go.

“Perhaps,” she deflects smoothly, and goes to continue watching her – _the_ idiots across the street. They have moved on to haggling with the food vendor, hopefully for something spicy. Ironically, its sweet of them to notice that.

“HQ is getting rid of the fraternization between ranks rules next month, did you hear?” Smoker tells her, a dangerous look in his eye.

“No.” Hina says, shortly, surprised, something like _hope_ stirring in her chest that she doesn’t want to admit quite yet. “Are they really?”

“Vice Admiral Tsuru is supposed to be making an announcement about it tomorrow.”

Hina hums, thinking. She – Well. Technically she could admit what she doesn’t want to admit _now,_ and say fuck the regulations. The marines have rules on the oddest things at any rate. She wouldn’t be the first to break a rule like this.

But –

She doesn’t want to admit it. _Can’t_ admit it yet, after she’s spent so long curating an image of her above her peers, iron strong and unshakeable. Unbendable – the woman suitors have no chance with.

But –

Across the street, Fullbody and Jango laugh and dance, always joyful, always dancing, that quirk of theirs that makes her _smile_ so goddamn much.

She wants.

(She’s never learned to dance before.)

She opens her mouth again, ready to say what she doesn’t know when a voice pops up to her left.

“Ma’am! Sir! Urgent news from the docks!”

She turns, taking in the woman before her, with short cropped hair and glasses. She’s wearing a marine uniform, which would be perfect if not for the way it seemed a size to big. She’s saluting sharply, and Hina nods to her.

(Odd. Hina’s not in uniform right now. She’s supposed to be off duty. It takes a dedicated Marine to find an officer that like, amongst the odd people of the Grand Line.)

“There is a pirate ship inbound, with canons readied, coming around the east coast, ma’am!” The report is snappy and proper, and at once Hina rises from her seat.

“Your name, officer?”

“Warrant Officer Kamome ma’am!” Kamome stumbles over the words a bit, a flush rising to her face as she keeps her eyes firmly focused on somewhere beyond Hina. Smoker gives a start next to her, peering closely at the woman. He says nothing, so Hina moves on.

“Officer Kamome, take word to the troops on the east side to prepare for long raged battle. I’ll be there shortly.” She takes a drag of her cigarette as Kamome, still blushing, salutes and runs off towards the east.

Hina turns to Smoker the second Kamome is out of sight. “What is it?”

“I could have sworn there was a bounty out for a pirate – a traitor- who had just entered the Grand Line from the South Blue. Turncoat Kamome.” Smoker drawls, watching the place where the might-be traitor disappeared.

“Do you suppose it could be a trap?”

Smoker snorts and puts the tip down on the table, standing up as he does so. “No way to find out but to follow, aye?”

There is a beat before Hina nods. “Aye.” She then waves at Jango and Fullbody, trying to not let too much affection bleed into her voice. “Get someone to watch your stuff men, we’re heading to the east coast. Find me a den-den, a bounty register for all South to Grand Line pirates, and make sure no one gets in my way.”

Jango and Fullbody have _stars_ in their eyes as they salute her, right before striking a dance pose, and then they are running, bickering as they do so. She shakes her head fondly at the gifts laid at her feet.

“You let them get away with a lot,” Smoker notes as Hina bends down to pick up a rose.

“It’s worth it,” She answers back, pinning the rose into her ponytail. “Now, let’s see about some pirates, shall we?”

(And if the pirates, with Kamome at the helm, disappeared along the west coast while Hina was commanding and giving orders on the East well – her boys gave her plenty of gifts to make up for the loss. She was off duty anyway.

No fraternization laws here.)

**X.**

They get the decree at Dawn, sent by a private messenger coo. Hina takes one look at the message and sweeps inside her cabin, disturbing the snow of the winter island they had stopped at.

Hesitantly, Jango and Fullbody follow.

(They aren’t quite at the rank where they should be right hand men, but they assume the role anyway. The men on Hina’s ship _listen_ to them, and they know it’s only a matter of time before Hina gains permission to promote them. They are the ones she trusts to support her, even as weak as they are. They are the ones to make her smile.

They are her right-hand men.)

They find Hina sitting at her table, head in her hands, smoke filling the rooms in a dusky haze. The papers she received are spread out before her, marine insignia blazoned _proud_ on them.

The words are in code, but never have they seen Hina this distraught.

(Black Cage Hina. Unshakeable, stoic, beautiful, deadly. The woman who apprenticed under Tsuru, the woman who knew _White_ _Chase_ when they were both rookies. Nothing stops her. _Nothing._

Except this.)

She lifts her head as Jango closes the door, Fullbody already striding up to stand next to her.

“Captain?” He prompts, softly.

She takes her cig out and breathes a plume of smoke into the air. “New orders from Marine HQ.”

Her face is reverting back to that stern look, the kind that isn’t natural on her, the kind that shows she’s _hiding_ something.

“There’s to be an execution in three weeks. All high-ranking Marines and their crews are to head to Marineford at once in preparation.”

Hina’s a captain. She counts as _high-ranking,_ especially with her devil fruit but –

_Who would need this much reinforcement?_ That’s well over a thousand men, for _one_ execution.

Jango speaks next. “Who?”

Hina gives another drag of her cigarette. “Fire Fist Ace.”

Fire Fist Ace, second division commander of _Whitebeard_. One of Whitebeard’s most beloved sons.

This would mean war.

Fullbody starts shaking.

(When he was a teen, he dreamed of being a marine for money and women, for a life of ordering people around and making the Marines work for _him._ He never dreamed of war. _Never._

But now – Jango and Hina – people he _cares_ about – they’ll be going into war with him. The reality threatens to crush him.)

Hina looks at them, her eyes tired, and tells them their orders. “We leave at dawn.”

Fullbody just hopes the sky isn’t red that morning, as he curls around Jango in barracks that night.

**XI.**

Marineford is the hell Hina knew it would be. A thousand marine forces are _nothing_ to an emperor – to a Conquering King – to a _father._

She stands there among ranks of white, Jango and Fullbody two steps behind her and the rest of her squadron three. Beside her are her friends, her comrades, people who might not be breathing by the end of the day.

Before her stands a still sea. Quiet. There is tension in the air, slowly rising. Hina feels it _deep_ in her bones. There is to be a war fought today.

There is to be _death_ today.

The sea breaks and a father stands tall amongst the waves. Hina stands tall as well, stands tall for her men, not an act of defiance like Whitebeard is doing but an act of protection.

“Men,” She says, quiet, as marines and pirates been to clash, as tsunamis rise and free with the actions of legendary men, “We will not die today.”

It’s not a promise. Hina can’t do that to them, to herself.

But it is an order.

“Aye, Captain!” Her squad, her beloved elite squad who should never have been in this battle, shout, and she is so, so proud.

“Attack!” She cries as the rest of the forces charge forward. She follows, quickly reaching the front, alone and binding anyone who she can reach. Some meet gruesome deaths, stabbed as they are bound to the ground. Others are luckier. Either way, Hina does not _stop,_ lashing out and striking with the force of a warden.

She grabs a pirate by the collar and headbutts him, tossing him away as she _yells –_ “KEEP GOING, MEN!”

She won’t let them fall. She _won’t._ In the corner of her eye she sees Jango and Fullbody fighting back to back, and lets out a small sigh of relief. They’re holding their own, staying away from the Division Commanders and allied Captains. Good. _Good._

They better live.

Hina hasn’t managed to get the words out of her throat yet, even as they are calm and patient.

She charges forward into hell, but then a boy falls from the sky – the boy Hina failed to capture – and hell becomes an Inferno.

A brother – A declaration – a –

**_KNEEL_ ** _._

The order shakes her. Makes her tremble. Conqueror’s Haki? Who –

_Straw Hat._ He’s desperately charging,

But – If Hina is shaking then –

She turns around, and watches as her men _fall_ to the ground, foam rising from their mouths and their eyes rolling back.

_No –_

Fullbody’s body hits the ground with a _thump_ that Hina cannot even hear.

_NO-_

Jango’s pendulum swings and falls with a clatter.

_NO!!_

Her boys – her _men,_ the ones who make her smile and dance and flow in the way Hina never could, who value her smile over pirates and her joy over missions – they’re on the ground. Vulnerable. In danger.

Hina, stoic, unbreakable, dangerous, gives a cry of rage, and rushes to protect what’s _hers._

**XII.**

_KNEEL,_ the voice commands, and so Fullbody does, hitting the ground and foaming at the mouth, head spinning, heart constricting. He’s helpless against this raw desperation.

He sinks into darkness, and wakes to the death of a legend and his son, wakes to the chaos of fleeing pirates and chasing marines. 

He stumbles up to his feet, dragging a hand through his hair. He’s – he doesn’t know where he is. Marineford, right, he was fighting with –

_Jango._

Fullbody looks around, half desperate, looking for the fake beard and sunglasses his partner always wears.

He finds them cracked under foot, as pirates run past, some crying, some _screaming._ They blur in his mind.

“JANGO!” He screams, desperate. _“JANGO!”_ A pirate clocks him in the face and he swings back, landing a hit with a solid _thump!_

Rage clouds his vision. His partner is _missing_ (gone, gone, he can’t be dead, he _can’t_ -) and these pirates have the nerve to attack him? Him? _Fullbody?_

(It’s a bit of self-righteousness he hasn’t had since a blond cook knocked him into the sea, since he met Jango. He doesn’t care. That’s his _partner_.)

His knuckles dig in again to an opponent, blood spraying, as he launches to another. The pirates don’t seem to bother, too busy _running._ They don’t have any stakes left but their lives. Fullbody just wants them to get out of his way.

He’s charging, charging, _charging –_ when a fist knocks him down. A pirate, bigger than he is, with the Whitebeard tattoo splayed across his entire front.

There’s a sword in hand. Bloody and gleaming.

The rage leaves Fullbody. He’s going to die.

(Jango would have never wanted him to _die._ )

The sword comes crashing down, and Fullbody never thought his last moments would be spent alone and desperate and –

_CLANG!_

Hina is there, beautiful, dangerous, bloody, her hair flying and her bind-bind fruit wrapping the pirate in thick steel binds. With a crack, she throws him across the battlefield, turning before the pirate lands, hardly even bothering with him.

She kneels down to Fullbody, desperate, and drags him up.

_“You almost **died.**_ ” She says, eyes worried, voice small but stern. “You aren’t allowed to _die._ I haven’t – I haven’t told you – I.” The words seem to lock in her throat.

“Captain,” Fullbody says softly, but Hina shakes her head.

“Hina.”

_“Hina._ ” The name is wonderful on his tongue. There is a war going on but he can’t help but focus on the woman here in front of him, stunning and perfect and amazing in every way. “I know. You don’t have to say it.”

And he _did_ know. He knew in the way she smiled softly at them, the way she accepted their flowers and theirs alone, the way she protected them in battle and made sure they had the best goods while on ship. He knew in the way she smiled at their _I love you’s_ and their dances, and the way she let them dance across deck. He knew in the way she always sat with a book in the middle of deck where they danced yet her eyes never even glanced at the words, the way Hina was lenient and loving with them.

He knew.

_He knew._

“I love you,” He says, simply, honest, saying it like he’s said a thousand times before, yet never in a battle like this. “I love – “

She drags him forward, and suddenly, there’s the press of lips on his, the smudge of lipstick, quick, forceful, determined. Hina pulls back, and he stares at her, dazed.

Hina just – she just –

Oh, how he loves her.

“I love you too. And I love Jango. And I don’t want it all to end before it never began – I love you.” The words roll off her tongue, unfamiliar, as if she’s never said them before, but she says them honest and true and full of love in her eyes. Fullbody smiles, bright and happy.

Screams echo in the background, but Hina doesn’t seem to care. “Now _go –_ save Jango. I’ll cover you. You aren’t allowed to die today. Damn my cowardice – we are going to have a _future_ together.”

She shoves him away, and Fullbody watches as she charges into the fray of screaming pirates, black binds surging forth, bold and gorgeous, a flash of pink in an exploding war.

He could watch her forever.

But he has a partner to save.

He scrambles upward, and starts searching for Jango, lipstick smeared on his lips and a deadly smile on his face.

**XIII.**

The last thing Jango remembers is battle, rage at a boy in a straw hat, the overwhelming urge to kneel and _darkness._

He’s never been quite good at ignoring orders.

Now, he wakes, his head _aching._ He feels like he’s just battled giants. He feels like he was after the bastard straw hats defeated him. He feels _awful._

He blinks his eyes open, heart shaped and odd, and stares into a grey ceiling. As he wakes up, slowly, he hears the groaning of men in pain, smells the sharp scent of antiseptic, and feels, weakly through bandages surrounding his hand, a warm weight. He turns his head over, and there, sleeping, is a shock of pink hair and a gloved hand in his. He thinks it’s Fullbody at first, his partner in this dance he calls life but –

The person shifts her head to the side, and its _Hina._ His captain. The only woman he could ever think of loving.

He looks at the hand she holds reverently, and smiles.

_She’s here._

And ow-ow _owow does it hurt to smile._

He doesn’t stop though as he shifts up, looking around the room to where he sees cloths strung up around the two beds in the room, one empty, and a chair in the corner. Its makeshift, but Hina must have pulled some strings to get this some semblance of privacy.

His smile turns dopey as he thinks about it, and he squeezes Hina’s hand gently. At the end of his bed are his weapons, smoothed and shined, probably by Fullbody’s careful hands.

The cloth shifts to the left, and another shock of pink steps through.

“Jango!” Fullbody shouts with delight even as doctor’s behind him shush him. “You’re awake!” He charges over to Jango’s side, placing the food he picked up on the bed as he goes. “We were worried!”

“We?”

Fullbody nods at Hina.

“She and I.” He settles down on the bed, pulling it close with a shriek. “When Straw Hat, uh, used his Conqueror’s Haki, I think it’s called – we blacked out. I think you hit your head on the way down. When I woke up, well… there was a lot going on.” His voice drops. “We lost the war. Or won it. No one can really say. Portgas D. Ace and Whitebeard are dead, and Straw Hat Luffy is supposedly out of commission but… no one really knows. Whitebeard restarted the age of piracy.”

Jango swears softly.

“But,” Fullbody grins, reaching across the bed to grab Hina’s and Jango’s other hands. “Not all went bad!”

“What went _right?”_

“This.” And that’s Hina’s voice and that’s a soft press to his cheek, and _oh –_ she woke up. She woke up and she _kissed_ him. “I finally figured out how to say it. I love you both.” Its quick and snappy but her eyes are earnest and Fullbody is smiling bright and –

It’s a dance in his heart, in his soul, because he is loved and his duet just turned into a trio, and all it took was some damned war.

Hina and Fullbody are both tired, exhausted, but Jango grips their hands tighter and _swears_ he’s never met anyone more beautiful.

**XIV.**

The captain’s cabin is dark when she arrives, Fullbody and Jango following after her. She sighs when the door closes behind her, a weight being taken off her shoulders.

Finally.

Finally, _peace._

“Captain?” Fullbody says, and Hina gives him a look. He grins, softly, and changes. “Hina?”

She hums absentmindedly as Jango and Fullbody make themselves comfortable on the lounging chairs she had bolted to the floor.

(She’s a _rear admiral._ She will take her perks where she can get them, thank you very much.)

“I’m… fine. Just tired.”

Battles. Idiots who didn’t know how to follow orders. The world is in upheaval after Marineford – the war that was supposed to end the age of piracy did nothing more than spark it _again._

The words echo in her mind again. _The One Piece is Real!_ Just as things came crashing, crashing down all over again.

The training for the New World doesn’t make it any easier.

Jango makes a sympathetic noise and lays a hand on her shoulder. Fullbody slides a tea and an ash tray in front of her and _oh_ she loves these boys.

Before Hina can voice her thankfulness, there is a thump from the closest. Hina stands, fast and furious. _Damn_ she needs to work on her Observation Haki more.

There’s three people in there.

She snaps on her gloves again and becomes _Black Cage Hina,_ rather than just _Hina._

“Come out,” She says, calm and controlled, none of the wariness that was there before on her shoulders. “ _Now.”_

There is a tumbling, then three people fall out to the floor. Well, two do, one stays standing – a girl in pink, with cropped auburn hair. On the ground is another girl, with purple hair and a shiny necklace, and a man –

A man in a top hat with a pipe on his bac. Hina shifts into a fighting stance. She _knows_ this man.

Sabo, Chief of Staff of the Revolutionary Army.

Why is he _here_ on _her_ goddamn ship?

“Sorry!” The girl on the ground pipes up, launching to her feet and smiling. “We’ll be out of your hair now!”

She looks vaguely familiar, like a face from an old wanted poster. Hina has time to figure it out later.

“Drop you weapons on the ground.” A quick glance shows that Fullbody and Jango bother have their weapons trained on the _revolutionaries._ God. She’s so tired. These revs better _listen._ “Do it.”

Sabo lowers his weapon, but Hina knows men like him. Tricksters, for all their worth. It’s a second, but that is all it takes for him to take the pipe and _smack_ the chair into the air, splintering it from its bolted down legs.

A distraction.

Hina is quick, using her fruit to bar the chair to the ceiling, acting on accident, but by then it is too late – the revolutionaries are out the window, Sabo giving her a cocky salute and wave. Hina spits her cig to the floor and grounds it wither her foot. _“Revolutionaries.”_ She spits, and Fullbody and Jango nod with her.

After that, her rage seems to leave her. She slumps back in her chair, not bothering to light a new cig. “What did they take? Or see?” She asks as Fullbody and Jango investigate the area.

“Your set of codes – the ones for entry into Mariejeoise.” Fullbody says, worriedly.

“And the new attack sets for your _Black Spears._ ”

Hina hums. She should tell HQ about this. She _definitely_ should tell HQ about this. But…

“Send a message to Admiral Fujitora. Tell him that the Revolutionary Sabo, and two others were spotted stealing attack plans from the _Black Arrow._ Nothing more.”

She hates revolutionaries, but after Marineford, she’s starting to hate the way the Marines are run _more._

Jango gives a hesitant smile, and goes to call out into the hall way. Fullbody takes her coat from her shoulders, and presses a featherlight kiss to her forehead.

“No more orders for tonight, Hina?” He asks, soft.

Hina smiles back at him, just as sweet. “No more orders.”

Across the room, Jango does a dance, and any of the remaining resentment she had banishes in a puff of smoke. She’s so _grateful_ to have people as wondrous as them.

So damn _grateful._

**XV.**

Hina kisses them now in private moments. She doesn’t do so blatantly on deck, but the whole crew knows it. Jango and Fullbody smell faintly of smoke and roses now, whenever they leave her side.

So much has changed since Marineford – the kisses, the smells, where Fullbody and Jango hang their hammocks at night – it’s a whirlwind in the hellish world.

(Whitebeard shook the world with one phrase, and Straw Hat Luffy shook it again weeks later. The sound of those bells, heard from the makeshift infirmary window, would haunt them forever. It was a reckoning. A threat. A _promise._ )

Fullbody and Jango take it in stride, a dance, a duet turned trio. Hina accepts their flowers and smiles openly, invites them into her cabin at night and lets them leave with happy smiles and lipstick marks in the morning, her own smile just as happy. When Jango and Fullbody hold hands, Hina slips her hands into theirs when she thinks no one is looking.

The crew of her ship wishes them well, and tells them not to hurt their captain – rear admiral now.

Jango and Fullbody both know they’d rather die before Hina got hurt.

Which is why they are here, in a dusty courtyard, Coby across from them and Garp watching from his own seat, clad for once not in marine white but brightly covered tropical print.

Fullbody is tired, sweat trickling down his forehead, blurring his eyes. His knuckles are red, his usual knuckledusters tossed in the corner with Jango’s weapons. Jango is no better, swaying slightly on his feet.

Still, they are determined.

(Hina looks so tired after the war. She’s happier, yes, her love out in the open with the only need to hide her own hesitance for PDA. But – reports come in the night, with more pirates rising. Akainu breathes down her neck with _orders_ that are just a proper way of saying slaughter, and she shakes, held between them.

(“ _Hina?_ Fullbody asks in the night, Jango rubbing at her shoulders. _Are you –_

_No._ Hina answers, _But I can’t afford to not be alright._

_You can with us_ , Fullbody wants to say, but even he knows the world does not stop for marines. These days, it turns on the whims of pirates.)

They need to be _stronger_ for her, stronger and stronger, so she does not always need to be the one protecting them, and can protect _herself._ )

“Again!” Coby orders, bright and strict despite the youthful edge to his face. At his command, Fullbody and Jango leap into action, knuckles blazing and kicks flying.

A spar – a dance against each other, not with each other for once. It’s odd, opposing his partner, but Fullbody knows all aches will be soothed by smiles and soft touches by the end of the day.

(And bandages and salve, of course.)

Fullbody twirls as Jango kicks high, ducking and bending to land a hint on Jango’s side that is met with a block.

When they had gone to Coby for help, he had asked them what their strengths were, what their weapons were.

_Garp,_ Coby had said, _taught me to use my fists, because I wasn’t good with tools but did have a shaky grasp on the punch. What are you good at?_

_Dancing!_ Fullbody and Jango had answered at once, quick and with a pose. Coby had given a grin, and set to work.

Incorporating their dancing into a fight… well as much as the romance books he read set up fights as dances, Fullbody had never truly considered it. It didn’t _seem_ like it should work.

But here Fullbody is, kicking higher, punching harder, dodging faster. Jango is the same, spinning to Fullbody’s long strikes. To turn the dance, something he loves, into something that _hurts –_

Well. It doesn’t feel like it. Because what they are dancing for, _who_ they are dancing for, fighting for is –

“Well. Looks like your new recruit does good work, Garp. You owe me a hundred belli Smoker.”

_Hina._

She is striding in, marine uniform shed for simple pants and tank, clearly coming in from the town. Smoker is by her side, with Commander Mira on the other.

“What did you think would happen?” Mira teases Smoker, curious as she strides in with them. “It’s _Coby_.”

“It’s not Coby I didn’t have faith in.” Smoker grumbles lightheartedly, handing the money over to Hina. “It was mostly in jest, anyway.”

Mira snorts, but before Fullbody can hear what she has to say, a foot lands solidly into the side of his face. For a moment, he’s on a restaurant in the middle of the sea, getting smacked into the deck. The next, however, he’s on the dusty ground as Jango dances overhead.

“Hahaha! Score: 1-0! Me!” Jango crows, before leaning down to help Fullbody up. Fullbody shakes his head in a dizzying spin before accepting the hand.

“Yeah, yeah,” Fullbody admits as Coby comes closer with a smile on his face.

“Very good! Fullbody, make sure you keep your mind focused on the battle. You should be noticing things outside the base fight, but not to the point where you get distracted. Jango! Spin faster, and only when dodging. Make sure you are able to stop – Fullbody almost got you when you couldn’t.”

“Yes sir!” Fullbody and Jango chorus as one, giving a smart salute. Coby gives them a nod, and that’s all they need to relax and start looking for their shirts.

Training… it’s been _tough._ But they are stronger now, and getting stronger every day. Soon, they might even be able to help Hina out on the front lines in the Grand Line.

(Okay. Maybe not _soon,_ and maybe not the front lines, but Hina will no longer have to worry about them when her back is turned. It’s a good thing, to be able to have the skills to be trusted like that. Fullbody is _proud_ of them, as is Jango, as is Coby, as is _Hina._ They’re Ensigns now, quickly on the way to Lieutenant, and they won’t stop there. Anything to follow Hina into the New World.)

Then… off to greater horizons.

There’s a press against his cheek, familiar and soothing. Fullbody turns his face to give Hina a kiss on the lips, and she gives a laugh.

“Working hard?” She asks.

“Of course, Rear Admiral!” Fullbody grins, as she turns to give Jango the same kiss.

“I can tell,” She adds, lightning her cigarette and handing a bandage to Jango. “You looked better. Stronger. I told you Coby would be a good choice.”

“It wasn’t us who doubted.” Jango says, tucking his pendulums back into his belt.

Hina gives a nod. “True. And now I have a hundred belli to spend on tonight’s dinner.”

Fullbody gives a smile at that, and begins walking with Hina and Jango towards the rest of the marines gathered. Smoker and Mira give them a nod, and continue with their conversation.

“Any word on the Straw Hats?” Garp is asking, subtly solemn.

Smoker shakes his head as Coby gives a sigh. “No. But Luffy’s out there! I know it!” Coby says.

“The whole world knows it,” Mira grins in turn. “The question is, when will he be back?”

“No one knows,” Smoker tells her, “But I do have information on that other group you mentioned. The one with connections to the Turncoat?”

Out of the corner of his eye, Fullbody sees Hina lean in. Turncoat… Turncoat Kamome? The one that they’ve been half tracking?

“Yes?” Hina prompts.

“She’s been spotted again on the ship the _Amber_ , with a fishman, the owner of the boat, who supposedly has connections to Jewelry Bonney, a child, a revolutionary… and well. Some reports say a crow, others say a man.”

For a moment, Fullbody’s mind flashes back to the man with crows he and Jango met in a crow’s nest.

Huh.

Hina gives a sharp grin. “Perfect. Any leads?”

“They’re heading towards the Calm Belt.” Mira reports. “Probably trying to make it to the West Blue and wait for things to die down. They might be heading towards the revolutionary base out there.”

At the mention of _Revolutionary,_ the air stills, tensions rising.

(Fullbody knows the whispers. That at the war, the Marines lost more than men. They lost _Justice._ Some say the only way to win it back is through a total overthrow… through the Revolutionaries.

Fullbody hasn’t really lead anybody in a long time. He can’t say what he believes. But he knows he’ll follow Jango and Hina to the ends of the earth.)

Mira smooths it over in quick words. “I’ll get you their last known coordinates by tonight.”

They have been tracking this crew halfway across the world, chasing them between duties like Smoker chased Straw Hat Luffy.

It’ll be good to find an end to their troubles.

“Then we’ll leave tomorrow morning… if they have improved enough by your standards Coby?”

Coby stands straighter in response. “Yes ma’am! Improvement is always needed, but it’ll be good to fight against real enemies, and not just in a spar.”

“I could throw cannonballs at them!” Garp states, a sadistic glint in his eye. Everyone cringes.

“I… don’t think that will be needed sir.”

“Bah. It worked with you!”

Before Garp can throw cannonballs without permission, Hina cuts in. “Then we leave tomorrow morning.” She turns a gentle, tender smile to Fullbody and Jango, who both blush. “I have a date tonight.”

A romantic candlelit dinner on the decks of their own ship, the rest of the crew on shore leave… Fullbody can’t wait, and by the way Jango’s hand enters his, he can’t either.

“I’ll see you right before, then.” Mira says, proudly, and soon they are all off, waving goodbyes and Hina walking hand in hand with Jango and Fullbody.

He might have a bruise on his cheek by tonight, but with how he’s smiling, he doesn’t think he’ll notice it.

**XVI.**

They arrive at the foggy island at dawn, small in their dinghy but with Justice on their capes blazing proud. In Hina’s pocket is a message with coordinates from someone who only referred to himself as _Benson,_ and in Jango’s shaking hands is a white flag.

They might die coming off this island. Jango knows it.

_Dirty Pirates!_ He has cried, but never has he faced off against revolutionaries. At least not like _this._

Hina strides forward, hands in her pockets and smoke drifting upward. She leaves footprints behind her in the sand, her hair waving gently in the wind.

Jango follows her steadily, Fullbody at his side.

(He’ll always follow in her footsteps.)

A voice calls down from above.

“State your business.”

It’s ominous, threatening, like rolling thunder.

Hina faces it head on. “A bee told us the hive was here,” She says carefully, the code flowing off her tongue.

A pause.

Jango feels his heart step out of beat.

“Enter.”

The fog dissipates, leaving behind a small stone building. Again, Hina leads the way, no hesitation in her steps. She opens the door with caution and goes down the stone stairs, to a room lit only by the dim light of a lantern. Jango gives an audible gulp, nervous, and itches to reach for his pendulum.

He stops just in time as a man emerges from the shadows.

“So, you’re the woman who has been chasing my agent half way across the globe.”

Jango _trembles,_ Fullbody doing the same beside him. That’s… that’s _Dragon the Revolutionary,_ father to Straw Hat Luffy and one of the most dangerous men in the world. Literally the most wanted man in the world.

(They won’t die here. Hina won’t let them. But it doesn’t make Jango any less afraid.)

“Yes,” Hina answers, blowing smoke straight at Dragon. “More like her little pirate crew, but it all lead to the same place anyway.”

Besides Dragon, the girl from the break in on the _Black Arrow,_ the one with purple hair, steps forward from the shadows. “You came here for a reason. Or Benson thought you had one, at any rate.”

Hina leans forward, grounding her cigarette into the table, extinguishing the flame, her face shadowed by the light. “I don’t like revolutionaries. I don’t like what you’ve done, and I don’t like how you have endangered my men. But I like Akainu and his mad dogs even less.”

“So?” The girl prompts.

“Rose,” Dragon admonishes, softly, seeming to grow in the dark. Rose, now named, quiets.

Hina takes it in stride, though Jango can see the tick in her face she gets when she’s nervous. He straightens up, Fullbody doing the same, trying to be a comforting presence at her back. By the way she relaxes ever so slightly, it works.

“So,” She says. “I want Akainu _gone._ You’re the best hope for that. I can offer codes, meeting points, information that not even you spies can get. I’m in the top circles now.” Hina says it like a threat – and honestly, that’s what it _is._

“What trust can we put in you, marine?” Dragon questions.

“None more than you have already – once Akainu’s gone, we are back to being enemies. But Akainu _will_ be gone, and that’s what I care about.”

Jango remembers the way she _snarled_ when Akainu gave her orders, when the slaughter lists and island raids reached the newspapers. He remembers the way Coby and Helmeppo had spoken to her about Akainu, and how he melted deserters. He remembers Akainu threatening Jango’s position as an ex-pirate, and the way Hina vowed to move heaven or earth for him and Fullbody.

He remembers, and understands Hina’s _rage._

Dragon is silent for a long, long moment, before he speaks.

“Very well.”

Hina relaxes, like a weight has been taken off her shoulders. Jango feels his knees go weak, Fullbody letting out a breath.

“Rose here will be your informant. Simply track her crew down, and you’ll find codes and information waiting. Thank you for the Reverie Information,” Dragon notes, Hina responding with a grin.

“It was simply too much trouble to bring it up.” She dismisses, at the same time stretching out a hand. “Until Akainu is deposed of, I won’t make any Revolutionary captures, and I’ll give you anything I can. In turn, you depose Akainu. Deal?”

Dragon grasps her hand, steady and strong. “Deal.”

They walk out with their lives that night, a new transponder snail in hand, and Jango can’t help but kiss both of his partners in joy that they _survived._

They celebrate with champagne on the _Black Arrow,_ Hina’s smile and Fullbody’s laugh brighter than the lantern light.

Change is coming, and Jango may no longer be a dirty pirate, but he _is_ a marine, and this time, he’s a true one: true to Hina’s justice, that is.

**XVII.**

The new base was stunning. Beautiful even. But Hina had no eyes for it - only for her two subordinates, drifting across the dance floor, showing up every officer there.

Hina gave a little sigh into her drink. Marine balls had always been so boring in the past, save for whatever antics Garp had gotten into, and Smoker’s typical fights. Now, she has a revolutionary to meet at midnight, and two partners to hang off her arms. Showing up with a boy on each arm indeed.

(How odd, that her meetings now consist of stuff like this: partners, love, and dangerous secrets. It’s refreshing, if deadly. But in the end, Akainu will be gone, and her men will be safe. So, she’s content in the end.)

Now, Jango and Fullbody are the stars of the night, easily the best dancers, their skill having them glide across the floor in time to the music. They are laughing, bright and easy, and she can’t help but follow them instead of the conversation. The tilt to Jango’s head, the way his glasses show the sides of his heart-shaped eyes – his hand on Fullbody’s shoulder, just beneath his hair. Fullbody’s matching smile, eyes bright and attire consisting only of a tight tee and cargo pants instead of the suits he used to be so enamored with. He has a hand on Jango’s shoulder, the other holding his hand.

They’re handsome, beautiful, and _hers._ Never has she been so lucky.

Slowly, they start to drift towards her place on the edge of the dance floor, hands outstretched.

“Hina!” Fullbody says, and she loves it when he says her name.

“Dance with us!” Jango finishes, standing right by his side. Their palms are open to her, ready to accept her into their circle of arms, into their duet turned trio but –

“I don’t dance.” Hina says, quick, quiet.

Jango’s eyes soften, and he plucks the rose from his boutonniere to give to her.

(She’s always smiled at their gifts.)

“You did with us on the _Black Arrow_ – when we taught you, remember?”

She does. Fullbody turning on the old music den den, Jango sweeping her into his arms, right after the break in by the revolutionaries. They had carried her then, easing her troubles, whispering _one, two, three, four_ right into her ear as they led her through an easy waltz.

It was easy, to dance with them.

(Hina had never danced before then.)

“Yes,” She says simple.

“Will you join us now?” Fullbody says, hand stretching out still, even as Hina tucks the rose into her hair. She looks at their honest faces, their earnest gazes, the way they seem to say _I love you_ with every movement, her fools who dance as they fight, and feels her heart give in like everyone knew it would.

“Okay,” Hina says, a smile lilting her lips, and takes her gloves off to place her bare hands in her partners. Fullbody and Jango laugh, tugging her forward, and suddenly she is on the dance flower, being swept between partners in dizzying motion.

The music slows down to a slow, romantic waltz.

Jango is in front of her, leading the way, Fullbody behind her, all of their hands clasped together.

“Just one, two, _Jango!”_ Jango teases, her, but his count is in time with the music, and in time with the spin Fullbody and Jango turn her into. Hina laughs, loud and bright, and they begin truly moving.

Easy steps, her following their lead. A solo, to a duo, to a trio, a partnered dance of three, beautiful and happy, sharp movements turning into a wonderful waltz.

Hina feels a part of her click into place.

She’s never danced liked this before, across the dance floor, held in not one set of arms but two – but she finds that she would never trade this for _anything._

She is loved, here in this circle of arms. She leans forward to give Jango a kiss, then backwards to give the same to Fullbody. They kiss by her head, a dance of three and here –

Here, dancing, there is _love._

Unlikely, but when has any dance like this ever been predictable?

_**Fin.** _

**Author's Note:**

> HELLO TIMMIE!!!! HAPPY SAKE EXCHANGE!!! I made it before midnight!!! I hope you enjoyed this fic of your lovely trio, and all the cameos i threw in. Thank you for being a wonderful gm and friend, and for being the one to truly make me enjoy creating and reading about oc's!!! Did you spot all of the ones I threw in? 
> 
> ANYWAY To anyone else reading this fic, there were cameos, so very many, you would recognize probably 0 of them, that is okay, but i do hope you enjoyed the hina/jango/fullbody shenangigans. I MIGHT post more, perhaps about their conversations as partners, but i cannot do dialogue so i will wait on that. This was my attempt at romance and i hope it read as romance!!!!
> 
> Okay am going to shut up now, but Hope you enjoyed and thank you for reading! <3
> 
> \- whirly
> 
> [My Tumblr!](https://whirlybirdwhat.tumblr.com)


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